Prelude
Sikkim is one of the most beautiful & picturesque travel destinations of Indian Himalayas. Surrounded by Nepal, Tibet & Bhutan, the 'small but beautiful' state of India offers spectacular view of snow-covered mountains of Indian & Nepal Himalayas. It's the most neat & clean mountain city that I have ever seen. Also in terms of safety & political stability, I would put Sikkim to the top of the list among other Indian cities. Some people say that it's even comparable to some European cities. The transportation is pretty much impressive, you can get shared jeep or private cab to the airport & train station in regular intervals (usually people plan their journey through Siliguri).
I've been to Sikkim before, & this time planned mainly for North Sikkim. The scenic beauty changes drastically towards the Northern part of the province, it's astonishingly beautiful there. However, you have to book a "package" from any local travel agency. They will arrange everything including car, hotel, food, etc. Better not to go for cheap deals, usually their hotel & food quality are bad, & you will regret to experience that at high altitude. I had booked all the tour packages & hotels from Endeavour Tour, an agent for Sikkim tour packages. You can book the packages after reaching there (not recommended during peak season), but better to book in advance.
Coming back to the point about my experience. It was my first 'post-digicam-tour', in 2010. We planned during the vacation of Durga Puja (Oct 12th to 22nd), & that's why had to book the railway tickets exactly before the 90th day of the journey (exactly at 8AM when the reservation opens) to avoid the rush. Courtesy to my friend Subhajit Bej for arranging the tickets for me. Nevertheless to mention that for many of my trips he served as my railway travel agent ;)
Finally on October 12th we all three (with my parents) were set to go. Reached Sealdah station in the evening, the train was scheduled to depart at 22:05 hrs.
13th October: Reached NJP around 8:30 in the morning. After having light breakfast at Siliguri bus stand, we booked a share jeep at the rate of Rs. 120 per head for Gangtok (rate in 2010). Usually the shared jeeps are very crowded, they want to exploit every single inch of space inside the jeep. If you don't like to travel like this, better to hire private car (which will cost around Rs 1500 I guess). Most of the drivers are Nepalese, & they are extremely professional to drive in the scary roads on mountain. We entered into Sikkim territory in a few hours .
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| Entering Sikkim |
Reached Gangtok around 3 PM. It was pretty cold with chilling wind. We had previous booking at 'Hotel Wayside' in upper Arithang road, Gangtok. It was a moderate hotel to stay (not good for Kanchenjunga view), but little bit down from the busy Mall area. That's one negative side of having a pre-booked hotel, you hardly have choices. I would recommend to search for a suitable hotel After reaching. However, in peak season you might have to pay more.
After getting freshened up, we went outside for a walk around the city & the Mall area. Sikkim is really small but beautiful...
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| Sikkim: small but beautiful |
In the month of October it was pretty cold outside & we were little bit tired due to the long journey. Came back to hotel after sometimes (although I hate of being locked inside hotel when you've come to travel). Went outside again for having dinner around 9 PM. The shops & restaurants close early in hilly areas, a good time for dinner is around 8 PM. There are lot of varieties of restaurants in the mall area, you can choose any kind of food among Tibetian, Nepalese, Bengali & other Indian types. If you are interested in local food, try Momo (Chinese people call it dumpling, although that's slightly different from Momo I guess), Thukpa, Noodles, etc. Personally I prefer eating in small restaurants, which reflect the feel of local food in more generic ways.
Next day we had plans for going to Changu lake & Nathu-la-pass. But it was raining heavily, & we had to cancel the trip for that day. Unfortunately, the day was totally wasted. October is not a good time, there will be chances of rain always. And you just can't do anything when it starts raining in the hills. So disgusting!...
15th October: The weather condition didn't improve, but we decided to go for Changu. It's irritating to stay inside the hotel when you've come to see the nature. We wanted to go till Nathu-la pass, but due to some problems, Sikkim Govt. was not giving permission. Mountains are at it's worse when it rains, especially the problem of land slide & road block is very common. We witnessed the same while going to Changu.
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| Scary roads |
By the time when we reached Changu, it was still raining. The weather was biting cold & foggy. Still the local people were making some business with paid ride to 'Chamri' (Yak).
After spending some time there, we headed towards Baba Mandir (on way to Nathu-La).
For the time being, the rain had stopped & the sky became little more brighter. Had some delicious Momo there to fill the appetite. It was a pleasant place indeed.
Came back to Gangtok around 5 in the afternoon. The weather was little bit cloudy and it was pretty cold outside.
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| The beautiful city |
Usually when I am in a tour, it's my habit to have a walk around in the evening, just to have a feel the place. Walking through the local roads is the best way to know a new place, I believe. Walking through the up-down city road is always fun, & a good workout too!
That day we had dinner in a nearby restaurant & went to bed by 10 PM. Next day was the much awaited journey to North Sikkim.
16th October: Probably luck was not with us in this tour. Because of bad weather we couldn't go to Nathu-La, & this time there was a mechanical fault: the car which was scheduled to pick us from hotel for North Sikkim, made it's way to garage due to the breakdown of car Axel. Also because of a festival season of Nepalis', the package organizer couldn't find an alternative car for us. They were insisting us to go for 1Night 2Day package, but we didn't agree. As a result we lost that day from our tour plan. Spent a boring day in Gangtok & waited for next available window.
17th October: Ultimately it was over, I mean the bad luck was over (temporarily) & we all were set to start our journey to North Sikkim. The agency allotted a Spacio Gold car for us along with other seven co-passengers. They were all Bengali families & we all were happy to get this group for the next 2N3D package tour. We started late, around 3 P.M.
We stopped at Mangan around 4:30 for lunch (probably we should have taken our dinner by that time). However, the lunch place was really awesome, the following picture I snapped from the hotel dining room.
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| Mangan |
The lunch was sumptuous, with Roti, chicken & curry. Nepali kids were playing around & also the pets. It seemed that they are all part of this pure nature, & we are the mechanical entities...
When we were halfway to our destination, the last rays of sun had already packed his luggage to call it a day & within half an hour we entered into darkness. I didn't have any previous experience to travel in hills in the evening, but it was really a thrilling as well as scary experience, especially in the risky roads of North Sikkim. Probably Nepali drivers only have the skill to drive in this type of risky roads. It's extremely hard to drive when you can hardly see a few meters ahead of you, due to dense fog. We crossed many waterfalls on our ways (at least 10 of them) & at night we could only hear the roar of the water & could visualize the pure white water coming out of the falls as millions of bubbles. Some of the water falls were tiny & the car can go over the streamline through the pebbles & stones. Mountains have so many shades, even in night time you can experience amazing things!
Ultimately we reached Lachen by 9:30 PM. It was tremendous cold along with incessant rain. The agency had accommodation in a house cum hotel. They served roti & chicken in dinner. We all were exhausted by the journey & immediately went to bed after finishing dinner. Our driver addressed us to get ready by 5 AM in the morning for driving towards Gurudongmar Lake (17,600 ft.).
18th October: I was extremely excited about going to Gurudongmar, one of the highest lakes in Asia. Although I hate waking up in the morning, this time I woke up spontaneously at 5 AM and went out of the hotel after getting dressed up well. It was a super awesome place. Beauty of Lachen can't be described by words.
For the time being we were waiting for our driver to pick us, I was taking snaps all around (I thought that electricity would not be available at Lachen, but surprisingly it was! So I fully charged my camera). The driver came with the bad news, we can't go Gurudogmar because the road is blocked due to a huge landslide. What can be more worse than than this news at that moment? But we had nothing to do, apart from feeling bad. We crossed the landslide area cautiously, it was really in worse condition.
Had our breakfast in a nearby hotel. Actually in the North Sikkim package, the tour party organizes everything including food, lodging, transport, and the hotel cum houses are built only for this purpose. You can't book hotels without package.
As the weather became clear, the place really turned into heaven. We finished our breakfast with bread, omelet & tea. Having breakfast in the midst of pine covered mountains is a memorable experience, it will make you to forget all problems of your life.
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| From breakfast area |
After a long drive, we entered Lachung area. Visited a big waterfalls on our way.
Actually, North Sikkim is a place for the most beautiful waterfalls. At least 10/15 were on our way & each one had their own variety and beauty.
Reached Lachung around 11 AM and after reporting the scheduled hotel for our lunch, we directly headed towards Yumthang.
Believe me, this is one of the finest place I have ever seen. Just awesome! All mental illness for missing Gurudongmar wiped out by the beauty of this place.
It was a place of color show, there were plenty of trees like Pyne, Rododendron, Juniper etc. etc. Our driver was telling that when in Feb-March season during snowfall, the place really turns into 'swarg' (Heaven). After spending few minutes there in the valley, we headed towards 'Zero Point', near the Indo-China border.
The road toward Zero point was superb & we were experiencing mesmerizing beauties of the nature. We were already late, & didn't get an opportunity to stop the car midway to take snaps. Reached Zero Point after the steep drive of an hour. It was really a paradise...
The weather was tremendously cold (locals were telling that the temperature is about 3 degrees below zero) and snow flakes were falling down. The river (don't know exactly the name, although driver was telling it is 'Tista', I think it is 'Lachen-Chu', one sub-origin river of Tista) had an awesome view all around..
Some of our co-passengers got ill (headache, vomiting etc.) due to the high altitude & weather condition. I managed to take some family photographs there.
If the place is scenic, your photography skills and camera lens quality doesn't matter significantly. The proof is the following picture, for which I had won a competition..
We stayed there for 1/2 hour, then started our return journey towards Lachung, again through the majestic Yumthang Valley.
It seemed that some unknown artist has painted the valley with his expert skills...
Came back to our hotel in the afternoon. It was really a nice hotel & the food arrangements were very much appreciable. Completed dinner with roti-Chicken again & went to bed around 10. I could clearly listen the sound of river, which was flowing just a few yards away from us. You can sleep with extreme peace & pleasure when you are sleeping in this kind of ambience. Fall asleep in no time...
19th October: It was the last day of our North Sikkim tour. In fact, we witnessed a bright morning after a long time.
The sky was deep blue & the nearby mountain peaks were visible clearly.
After packing the luggages & everything, we left Lachung around 8 AM & drove towards Chungthang (the meeting place of Lachen-Chu & Lachung-Chu, both combines into Tista from there).
Had our lunch on the way & we were on our way towards Gangtok.
Arrived Gangtok in the evening.
Because of bad weather condition, we had already lost one day, & that`s why our scheduled Pelling trip delayed by a day. Pelling is located at the West of Sikkim & we had planned to stay a couple of days there.
20th October: Because it was a high season for tourists, we were almost exhausted for getting share jeep for Pelling. Ultimately got one, but it cost Rs. 400/- per head instead of 170 (the usual rate)! We had prior booking in 'Hotel Panchak' at Pelling. It was a nice hotel & we were given a view room. But the weather was not sufficiently good to have view of Kanchenjunga (for which Pelling is most popular).
After having lunch, we hired a car at Rs. 800/- for local sight seeing. First visited an awesome waterfalls, the Kanchenjunga falls.
Then we went to visit 'Khechiperi Lake'. But personally, I didn't like it that much. There was a monastery in that area (forgot the name).
It was getting evening, & we were forced to come back to our hotel. Our Pelling tour remained incomplete, you can't cover Pelling in a single day. I hope in future will come again here...
21st October: The hotel manager booked a ticket for us for going back to NJP. Reached there around 2:30. Had some marketing in the 'Hongkong Market' in Siliguri & departed by Darjeeling mail at scheduled time 8:00 P.M.
Reached Sealdah next morning.
